Sugar Shack

On Sunday we decided as a family to take full advantage of the beautiful, springlike weather to embark on a road trip!  We headed off to our family farm in Indiana…and nestled within it is a maple syrup camp!  I’ve had the luxury of not only eating the delicious, family-made syrup my entire life…but also having the opportunity to see it being made!  Our shockingly open Sunday free of activities AND this crazy weather we’ve had made it possible once again for our family to take a peek at the production in action!  The roller coaster of freezing and thawing temps has the sap, which flows through the veins of those trees, practically pouring out like a faucet!  So we loaded up the muck boots and hit the road to visit relatives, enjoy some fresh farm air, and breath in the soft scent of sugar wafting from the woods!  Have a peek at our trip to the sugar camp for some…

marvelous maple syrup!

you know how it is when you revisit places you remember as a kid?  there’s something kind of comforting in returning to those special places…even though they change as we do!  and despite the changes, there are certain things on and around the farm that seem to have frozen in time…as we drive up to our family property we pass the one-room school house where my grandmother once attended classes!  i just love that it’s still standing…

there’s something about the wide open spaces…

and that familiar sign as we drive in…

off in the distance…the sugar camp!

follow the muddy tracks on in…

it was a VERY good thing we remembered our boots!

it was pretty crazy that there was snow on the ground and yet the thermometer said 67 degrees!  i guess that explains the muddy river that the kids couldn’t stay out of!  if you look closely on the other side of the “river” you can see the blue sap bags hanging on the trees…

these clear bags are the vintage ones…and years ago it was the bucket that would hang!

a tractor comes in handy for gathering up all the sap from the bags…

the tank holds all that clear liquid that will soon be boiled down into that caramel-colored syrup!

and while the tractor is waiting to make it’s next haul…it becomes a fun jungle-gym for the kiddos!

not that they need help having fun out here…

enjoying all that fresh air!

but everyone keeps gathering around the sugar shack to watch the deliciousness in progress…

i wish you could smell the air…it’s a combination of firewood, steam, and sugar–i LOVE it!  and the scent brings back so many memories of the days my cousins and i warmed ourselves around the boiler, ate hot dogs cooked in a pot of the sap syrup, and played in the woods, completely drenching our snowmobile suits in mud!

foamy, sap suds!

gotta keep it boiling!  it was rather hot in there this time…like a sweet sauna!

checking the thickness of the syrup…making sure it’s just right!

time to start filling…

liquid gold!  the tiny maple leaf bottles were for the kids to take back to their classrooms to share!

more family and friends keep stopping by to see all the fun…and do some taste-testing too!

it was such a fabulous day…spending time with family, enjoying the farm, reminiscing, AND making maple syrup!   we also got to enjoy the view of my grandma’s old school house through the trees at the edge of the woods…

and one last look back at the old sugar shack that i remember…practically leaning against the new one!  no longer boiling sap but now used to store firewood…like the school house, i’m just happy it’s still there!

soon we’ll have plenty of syrup to get us through the year…AND give to our friends, co-workers, teachers, and coaches–like these goodies we delivered last Christmas!

i hope you enjoyed this peek at our outing and…

a step inside our sugar shack!